Hatchet is great my 11 yr old had to read it in school and now she has read The River (a sequel) and Brian's Winter (alternate sequel) There's 2 other books about Brian but the names escape me right now.

I also have My side of the Mountain for her to read and will try to find the other companion books to this.

I love reading books so I have no problem buying her books to read especially when I enjoy reading them too

Check out Lost on a Mountain in Maine by Donn Fendler true story of an 11 year old lost on Mt. Katahdin

My seven year old loves the Swiss Family Robinson. Two of my favorites growing up - Robinson Curusoe and anything by Jack London - are still a little advanced for him.

My son also really likes the Dangerous Book for Boys. It tells lots of great shorter adventure stories and teaches all sorts of cool skills. Les' "Survive" and Bear's "Living Wild" are also favorites for the survival stories sprinkled throughout. (We call Bear "The Dumb Guy" at our house but "Living Wild" is written for Scouts so stays away from the questionable stuff.) Looks like Bear also has a fiction book for kids called "Mission Survival: Gold of the Gods" or something like that.

My ten year old nephew loved "Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Extreme Junior Edition". It was a fun and imformative read. It's got a bunch of snippets, some a little less likely than others.

Strange Companion is a book I read as a child. It is about a boy's survival after being the sole survivor of a winter plane crash. I vaguely recall the book and would love to find it to re-read from an adult perspective.

A Light in the Forest about a boy taken by the Delaware and his adventures. I learned how to walk silently from that.

A co-worker is lending me My Side of the Mountain.

There's one I've been looking for that I cannot recall the name of - it involves a young couple driving into a snow drift and getting stuck, then having to get to safety many days later. I read it probably 20 some years ago and I can't recall the name of it. Anyone know it perchance?

From very early years, I vaguely recall a Winnie-the-Pooh hardcover that had Christopher Robin with a raft and lantern, in a flood or rainstorm. I have no idea what the title was, but I have a few mental snapshots of the illustrations. And I still remember the thrill that story gave me, how it fired my interest and imagination.

2 Adventure books I loved as a kid-The Island of the blue dolphins & The Cay,Lotsa' Good survival info infused into the neurons,Way back when!

My favorites were a series of novels for boys by Montgomery Atwater. They were about forest rangers, ski patrolers, and whatnot. As a young lad, I devoured every one of the series that our local library had available. Two I remember were "Hank Winton: Smokechaser", and "Ski Patrol".

Atwater knew what he wrote about. After service with the 10th Mountain Division in WWII, he went to work for the US Forest Service. He established the first formal avalanche research program in the Western Hemisphere, at Alta Utah, in 1945.

I don't know how I survived childhood, honestly. Why is it that life doesn't come with a manual?